Joe Delaney remembers 1975: Prima, Smith, Butera at the Sahara

Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses were the catalysts who created the Las Vegas lounge renaissance in the mid-1950s at the Sahara. Prima and Co. graduated to main showrooms in the 1960s and '70s. Prima and Smith were divorced in the 1960s and he later married Gia Maione, who is not billed here. The Tropicana Blue Room was a 400-seat mini-showroom that complemented the hotel's Tiffany Theatre, home of the "Folies Bergere" these past 40 years. Prima suffered a stroke in the late 1970s, ending his career. Butera has remained active with a group called the Wildest, playing lounges and keeping the Prima legend alive. Ford & Angel were a music-comedy duo, short-lived here.

archive